Soul Venerable (Re-written)

 

Slick! A nasty sound of a torso being sliced into two resounded as Kasumi swiped horizontally with her gunlance. It definitely is not a sword, but it has a sharp edge and high-frequency vibration that allows it somehow replicate the effect of [Triple Extreme Sound: Finger Whistle].  

Occasionally, Shion and Kasumi could hear large explosions that covered their surroundings. Kenji has truly become an artillery that launches explosive arrows more destructive than Kasumi’s HE Shells at this point. Groups of greenskins converged on his location to stop his long range bombardment, but they triggered anti-personnel mines laid in the periphery by Ayame.

After hundreds of greenskins are killed by the landmines, Ayame decloaks and fights against the horde with her advanced digitized equipment. 

She materialized a standard military submachine gun-type railgun used by Galatreon’s military personnel as sidearms. The energy and magnetic round expenditure of the said weapon has been streamlined, it uses small-caliber magnetic rounds that she procured for this war. In terms of firepower, it could not compare to her sniper-type heavy railgun, but it is extremely effective in dishing out consistent damage towards weak foes in this situation.

Unlike Kasumi’s small-caliber minigun rounds who explode goblin skulls but are stuck in hobgoblin flesh, hers has no problem in killing a few hobgoblins at a time. 

Some hobgoblins managed to approach her and threw their weapon, but they were deflected by her defensive methods.

Ayame is the most well off member of Twin Helix, the amount of digitized artifacts in her possession seems endless. Small attacks such as rocks and stones have their trajectory altered by an information-path defensive spell known as [Vector Distortion]. For larger, heavier objects such as stone-tipped spears or rusty iron axes, an energy shield will flare up to life to block it. 

If not for worrying about the energy expenditure, she could just fight in the frontline relying on her artifacts all day long.

Even so, Kenji is not the type of person that would let a small girl protect him. His ego would take a hit if he relies on Ayame’s wealth as protection. Once in a while, he would bombard the approaching greenskin so that the pressure that Ayame faced would be lighter. Unknowingly, the two learnt how to cooperate better and better as time passess by.

On Sumire’s side of the battlefield, a group of kobolds spearheaded by a team of humans sliced across the tide of green. 

By relying on the kobold’s near-perfect coordination through Sumire’s command-path methods, they could avoid losses. The kobolds moved as if they had one mind.

Enslavement-path is extremely well-versed in macro-control, whereas command-path is on micro. The telepathic thought expenditure of ‘steering’ command-path armies are significantly higher compared to enslavement-path ones, but it’s surgical precision-like control allows Sumire to have absolute authority upon her army. 

Supported by Alanis’ [Group Chat], Sumire essentially became a command hub where the kobolds could exchange telepathic thoughts with each other almost instantly. In addition, they could follow the most correct tactical decision because Sumire is overseeing them from afar, thanks to Alanis who also maintains information control regarding the battlefield.

Although Sumire’s Kobolds have no significant difference in terms of body spec compared to the goblins, their perfect coordination rendered their combat effectiveness constantly at an all-time high. 

Whenever a kobold has expended a portion of their stamina, they will switch with one in the back, creating a cycle where all kobold’s stamina are spent together, not leaving one too tired so that he or she could become the weakest link on the chain. This allows them to fight for a long time. 

Since the kobolds themselves are slaughtering greenskins, there wasn’t much of a difference compared to Sumire’s human teammate. Led by the pair of Kubikiri brothers and sisters, they harvested the souls of greenskins as if they were weeds. 

 

At the main battlefield.

Explosion of ice and frost wind enveloped a group of greenskins. They were unable to approach Frozen Heart’s captain, Anastasia Victoria, due to the heavy ent warriors protecting her while she constantly sent forth area-of-effect spells. 

As the captain of a team who was known for their excellent anti-enslavement-path methods, she truly lived up to expectation. 

Enslavement-path battle tactics could be summarized in one word: attrition. It uses overwhelming numbers to exhaust the opponent’s combat resources. If for example, Anastasia’s life could be bought with 1000 lives of cannon fodders, then it is already considered a success. 

“Excellent spell as always, captain!” Yulinka, her distant cousin, praised her as she cast a spell.

Anastasia’s spell has a secondary effect of freezing the environment, slowly altering the terrain so that her next spell would have either reduced resource consumption, or have greater effect or both. This was her capital for their anti-enslavement-path battle tactics. With every passing spell, she fortifies the environment so that it would benefit the team. 

In a sense, she incorporated the profundity of wisdom-path, which is extreme strategic depth, to her own methods. 

As the battle continues, her spell resources plummet to dangerous levels but as she crept closer to that situation, her team’s methods would be 2, or even 3 times more effective than the original, allowing her team to be more dangerous as time passess by.

Anastasia’s eyes glowed in faint purple light as she silently activated a wisdom-path investigative method. “This emotional pattern from the greenskins… It seems like we have killed too much of their slaves. The Orks are now taking control.”

Just as she finished deducting, the greenskins are no longer moving like idiots.  

The heavy ent warriors who are casually slaughtering the greenskins started to experience a bad time. The cold environment reduced their already-slow movement speed, which forced Kobayashi Hana to move them somewhere else. As a replacement, other Frozen Heart members summoned their frost golems for protection.    

After separating from Anastasia, most of the heavy ent warriors are sent as Radiant Desolation member’s entourage.

Unlike Hana’s Thousand Flower or Anastasia’s Frozen Heart, Li Xiao Bai’s Radiant Desolation team does not have a specific ‘theme’. Their members are not of the same origin, most are rejects who did not fit with the local team’s sense of value. Some of them are from the neighbouring Qin Empire, Klauss is from the Land and Sand and Fire, and others are also non-natives of Hartina Kingdom.

Methods from Radiant Desolation members could not stack atop each other to form a quantitative change like how Thousand Flower and Frozen Hearts did theirs, yet, that does not mean their killing efficiency is low. Radiant Desolation compensates for the lack of ‘elemental compatibility’ with their own methods.

The most eye-catching, quite literally, was Li Xiao Bai. As an arcane and martial cultivator of light-path, his methods produced a great amount of light.

Light-path methods are typically fast as they are literally at the speed of light. But, he utilizes light-path supportive spells to augment his teammate before slaughtering greenskins with his martial weapon, a crystal spear that could be used to cast spells, so that he could stay in the battlefield longer.

At this point of the war, everyone did not want to fall behind. To catch up Shion and Kasumi who stole the merit of baiting and killing the rank 1 Fultheron, they showcased one trump card after another, further speeding up the death rate of greenskins. 

It doesn't matter even if the Orks have taken control. At this point, the greenskin have thinned out quite significantly so that green sea tactic wouldn’t be able to drown them.

 

At Shion and Kasumi’s side.

“Our group’s kill count is reaching 1.100. Roughly 69% of the present greenskin has been eliminated by us and the main army. Just now, I sense a strong investigative method has swept our location.” Kasumi reported as she retracted her gunlance from the last surviving Fultheron. Currently, there’s a wide open space between them and the greenskin as they are holding themselves back by not approaching the two Shions.  

“I noticed. The Orks are starting to move.” Shion glanced at the ruined wall of fort Esela. “They have no artisan-type greenskins in there, maybe it’s a great chance to steal an early start?”

Although that thought appeared in her mind, she wouldn’t be that confident in fighting against an Ork raiding party. Compared to the goblin and hobgoblins, they are a true blue intelligent race. In comparison, a 10-man Ork raiding party is at the same level of Radiant Desolation or even the former Violet Sword Blaze. 

What if, for example, the Ork raiding party has 50, or 100 members and is supported by a rank 1 ork shaman? Going there alone would be suicide. Shion wouldn't want to waste the identity of ‘Shion’ that she had forged. Therefore, the best situation is to join up with the main army before attacking the fort.

After Shion’s release of another [Finger Whistle] that decapitates almost 20 goblins and hobgoblins alike, the greenskins retreated towards fort Esela in a chaotic way. 

“We should regroup with our group.” Shion ordered a recall as the two retreated towards Ayame and Kenji. The other groups who saw their maneuver did the same thing. They immediately retreat to rejoin the main army, including Sumire’s stormtrooper squad.

Shion’s strategic retreat proved to be an excellent decision. As the last low-tier greenskins entered Fort Esela, an ork raiding party exited its ruined castle gate.

“Five…” Ayame muttered as saw the 50-man ork cavalry split into five 10-man groups through her sniper scope.  

Each ork is mounted on top of a large black wolf. From a distance, the orks have no significant difference compared to humans with the exception of their green skin and muscular body. Yet, their similarity with humans stops with their looks.

“Multiple rank 0 2-meter class Orks presence detected. Warning: Orks possess secondary organ systems and a possible tertiary depending on the specimens. Suggested method of killing: decapitation.” Kasumi muttered in her cold, robotic voice.

Ayame and Kenji felt weird to hear those words from the liquid metal slime who took Shion’s form, especially Ayame.

‘So, Captain's Soul Armament has a function similar to my A.I. unit?’ she thought. Kasumi’s words are exactly what her A.I. support unit, Aozora, suggested to her.

“Let’s see… 2-meter class orks shouldn’t be a problem for us, right? Is there any shaman in their midst?” Shion asked Ayame.

Ayame discarded the distracting thought as she refocused on the task at hand. “6 Shaman signatures detected. Each group contains one shaman while the one that’s approaching us has two…” 

“Great.” Shion said in anticipation. “Your task is to assassinate the shamans. Prioritize supporting Sumire’s group. Do not worry about the one that went for us, me and Kenji can handle them. Go, now!”

By her orders, Ayame suddenly disappeared with a flash of prismatic pixels. It took less twenty seconds before a trail of blue plasma left a nearby location towards the shaman in the group that came for Sumire. 

Using precious ultramagnetic rounds, Ayame’s attack reached a fraction of the speed of light. The ork shaman wearing beast hide shamanic attire that she targeted wasn’t able to react at the projectile, his head exploded as his souls dissipated due to the lightning. Even if the Ork God could bestow miracles, it wouldn’t do any good as the shaman’s souls have been destroyed into soul fragments by the secondary lightning damage.     

After that attack, Sumire’s group engaged in combat with the ork raiding party. The ork shaman in the group wasn’t able to activate any blessings so the orks couldn’t use blessings to amplify their performance and Ayame’s attack forced the Orks they fought to raise their guards for another unexpected attack.

Seeing the result, Shion reveals a smile. Railguns are truly effective in assassinating high-value targets. “Are you confident in fighting against an ork raiding party with me?” She asked Kenji.

With his own investigative methods, Kenji was able to gauge the strength of each orks. Not only do they have more members, each of them are slightly stronger than him. This wasn’t caused by being elite or not. This was simply racial advantage.  

Although it is not apparent, greenskins could be considered as a transformation-path lifeform.

Transformation-path lifeforms have one quality that made them above others: adaptability. Meaning, a transformation-path race who is known for their combat ability almost always has greater war potential than others. 

The best proof for their transformation-path racial traits is… their ability to evolve. As long as certain conditions are met, goblins could evolve into hobgoblins, and hobgoblins into orks. Furthermore, Orks are classified by their classes. There’s 2-meter class, 3-meter class, 4-meter class, et cetera. These are the result of adaptation and change, allowing them to thrive in an inhospitable environment where other lifeforms would struggle. 

‘What didn’t kill them made them stronger’ is especially true regarding orks. If these battle junkies did not grow in physique, they will grow in intellect. 

That being said, almost each ork is unique. Due to their personal experience and combat method, a ork might have three hearts or two sets of lungs. If, for example, they have been hit by a large-area paralyzing spell, they might even develop a secondary nervous system with neuro-conductive fluid that allows them to be immune to being paralyzed. Also, almost all types of poison are rendered ineffective against them due to their rapid adaptability. 

Thus, orks are truly a high-tier greenskin that stand above others. If the Hunter Association did not cull their numbers regularly, they might be able to form a rank 1 ork army that will give the Hartina Kingdom’s Nine Master clans a headache.  

For Shion to ask Kenji if he dared to fight against an ork party with her is not an insult, but a genuine concern. 

“I… want to try fighting against one…”  Kenji scratches his chin with a nervous expression.

“Alright, that’s good enough. I will let one go so that you can experiment. In the meantime, do not approach the smoke unless it dissipates.” Shion smiled.

“What smoke?” Kenji raised his eyebrows.

“Just watch. Kasumi, let’s go.” Shion urged Kasumi as both raced towards the incoming Ork cavalry. When their distance got closer, Shion produced a few white orbs from her dimensional storage rings and threw them towards the mounted greenskins. 

Needless to say, the white orbs are white phosphorus bomb.

Just as the white phosphorus smoke instantly spread to shroud the two Shions with the ten mounted orks, Shion also sang a song.

The choice of her song is not [Song of Allure] but [Song of Distrait]. The principle is similar, but it spreads telepathic distracted thoughts towards the orks. Ones that are affected would have their telepathic thoughts infiltrated with distracted thoughts, reducing their focus so that their combat efficiency becomes lower as time passess by.  

A minute after Shion enters a melee with the ten ork raiding party under the smoke screen, an ork is thrown outside. 

The ork landed on the ground with his neck, it became twisted in an unnatural way. His green skin is scorched as Shion’s white phosphorus burns extremely hot when it touches biological matter. The ork’s gaze was also blank as if he was distracted with something. After a few seconds, the ork’s concentration returned as he simply fixed his neck as if it was nothing. His scorched skin is also being healed at a visible rate.  

When he saw a human, the ork roared as his battle intent rose. “HOOMIES, DIE!” he roared.

Kenji immediately entered combat mode. The computation cores inside his body rapidly produce and exchange telepathic thought so that he could adapt to the situation accordingly. The ork has late-stage rank 0 strength, which was a minor realm higher than him. Yet, that did not discourage the Wild Savage.

“First… I need to disarm him so that he won't be able to hit me with his axe…” Kenji moved according to his thought process. He strikes the axe-wielding 2-meter tall ork’s hand which has the thickness of Shion’s waist with his atmospheric strength method. 

Due to his repeated practice with his bow, Kenji’s accuracy in ranged attack has been steadily increasing. He managed to break the ork’s finger with his fist force, forcing the ork to drop his battle axe to the ground. 

“Hoomies yus peti triks. I kil hoomies!” The ork’s vocabulary wasn’t numerous enough to form a proper sentence in human tongue, but it was sufficient to represent its intent. The ork traded punches with Kenji who wasn’t worried about being killed in one hit by the battle axe. 

Crunch! Kenji received a fist that would’ve dislocated a human’s neck if it was someone other than him. “Fuck, you orks really hits hard…” He could feel his brain shaking a little, but he wasn't receiving hits freely. 

He tried to incorporate the sound-path profundity that he learnt from Shion to understand orks better. While the two traded punches in a contest of raw, unadulterated brutal ferocity, Kenji’s computation cores are working the hardest to decipher the reaction from his fist.

‘The limit of [Synesthesia] is not merely to see or smell sound. If I combine my senses of touch with other senses, I can use the ‘echo’ of energy from my fist to inspect the internals of my foes, allowing me to determine their weakness…’ 

He had formed a theory after experiencing the miraculous effect of [Synesthesia] when he witnessed Shion sing a song for the first time.

‘I did it! So this is what the boss did to easily bypass my defenses…’ His second mind was ecstatic as his analysis was correct. Through the ‘echo’ of his fist force, he was able to sense the ork’s internal organs.

The information he received truly opened his eyes. 

‘Three hearts, three lungs… and what the fuck is that organ is for?’ His second mind pondered as his primary constantly controlled his body to exchange fists.   

For Kenji, this is a precious opportunity to study the ork’s physiology so that he could kill orks better in the future. As he collected more information, he realized a few mutations on this particular ork.

‘The bone and muscle of his right hand is significantly stronger than his left. The left side of his rib cage has turned into a solid plate, leaving the right side of his chest weaker…’ 

Crack! Kenji sends a palm strike towards the ork’s right chest, destroying one of the ork’s hearts. The ork coughed red blood, but he acted as if the destruction of one of his heart a minor injury. “WAAAARGH, HOOMIES!” it roared in anger as the blood in the ork’s body started to boil, giving him a surge of strength unseen before.

“This is… a method similar to [Overwhelming Power]?” Kenji could sense the increasing power as he turned serious. There wasn’t a need to gain more intel, he truly needed to kill this ork as soon as possible. 

But, his plan has been thwarted in its inception. The ork’s rage has turned it into an adrenaline-filled humanoid tank which fears no pain. He made a mistake of enraging an Ork as the difficulty of killing it now rose exponentially. 

Kenji has no choice of using [Power Overwhelming] to outpower the ork, yet that proved to be his greatest mistake. 

When facing a foe stronger than them, orks wouldn’t back down. Their battle intent rose even higher and their flesh and blood are being optimized to give themselves a chance of victory. 

In short, it took him almost 10 minute contesting in pure strength to finally crack the ork’s head open. 

“Haaaah…” he exhaled white steam as he activated his healing methods. “If killing one of them is already this hard, then what kind of battle knowledge allows you to fight against 9 orks directly, boss?” He glanced at the white phosphorus smoke. 

Almost at the same time of his gaze, the music and ork roars that could be heard from this distance suddenly turned quiet.

Soon, the white phosphorus dissipates, revealing two Shions. 

The silver-colored Shion's left hand held the head of two ork shamans while her right held the gunlance, her gaze are concentrated at the main battlefield. As for the real Shion, she sat on top of a hill of wolf and ork corpses while playing with two Mana Pools that she harvested from the two ork shamans.